Posted on 07/29/2007 4:49:21 AM PDT by GiovannaNicoletta
Excellent article!
Short on hard statistics.
The first ones to advocate socialized medicine are also the first ones to decry the shabby treatment vets get at veteran's hospitals (i.e. Walter Reed, which is now closed or is closing soon). What makes socialized medicine proponents think that the government would handle health care for the average citizen any differently or better than veteran's hospitals do.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/catosletter/catosletterv3n1.pdf
http://www.cato.org/dailys/9-23-96.html
http://www.theadvocates.org/freeman/8903lemi.html
Good article in parts showing the disaster of health care schemes in states. And he highlighted a fact liberals and conservatives alike pretend doesn’t exist.. The laws of supply and demand affect healthcare like any other part of the economy. Conservatives have argued to me that adding more supply in terms of doctors, pa’s, nurse physicians etc would not help the situation.
But on the other hand it shows the federalist model of state action won’t work for states at least not like normal programs. Old people, unhealthy and poor would move to the states with government healthcare.. While productive, healthy young people would leave because of confiscatory taxation levels.
Anyone who has passed Econ 101 could have predicted what would happen next, but it nevertheless caught government bureaucrats by surprise.
Across the state, primary care providers are now turning away patients, and waiting times have lengthened because physicians receive below-market payments along with an influx of new patients. Thus, Massachusetts bureaucrats are learning a lesson that even Communist bloc countries learned decades ago: when government social planners artificially increase demand and reduce supply via price controls and rationing, shortages and inferior quality quickly follow.
I'm still agnostic over Mitt Romney, but this part of the article is not good news for him, because he was partly responsible for Commonwealth Care. I'm sure his people will blame it on the Democrat state congress who partnered with him on this program.
On another note, I've got one little quibble with the author's logic in the following sentence: ". . . waiting times have lengthened because physicians receive below-market payments along with an influx of new patients." Below-market payments do not result in longer waiting times. Instead, I'd say that the influx of new patients is the only cause for the new delays.
“And this is an idea that so many wish to emulate in other states and on a national scale?”
But the proponents of universal health care will make two claims:
- This only shows that it must be universal. If all states have it, then individual states like WI won’t be penalized for doing the ‘right thing’.
- If it is universal, then every one will have a stake in ensuring it is properly funded and support increased taxes to provide the highest quality of care.
All socialists believe that the only reason socialism has failed in the past is that it has not been tried on a large enough scale and that this time it will be different if only they are in charge.
Really? I wonder if the patriot FReepers that have shown up every week at WRAMC for the last 118 weeks in a row know about this.
The Rats have used the MSM to brainwash the masses thatUHC is needed and desirable and US corporation's are starting to buy into the idea due to international competition pressures from the one world economy. Rino's will join the Rats to save their electoral hides.
Is it too late for UHC to be stopped or is it time to start framing the debate to get a plan that does the least damage ?
Hillary Exposing herself as a Catastrophe
Walter Reed is NOT a Veterans hospital, but is a US Army hospital for injured Active Duty troops! One of the problems at Walter Reed recently was the inability of getting their patients, who required it, discharged from active duty and transferred into the VA system. The two medical systems are NOT at all linked administratively. A person, who is legitimately discharged / retired from the military with a documented disability, can usually recieve medical care immediately, BUT it can take up to a YEAR of review and administrative busy-work before the disability level is recognized by the VA. The same thing applies to Social Security disability compensation. This means receipt of often-needed disability compensation is delayed, especially for those with serious injuries and little prospects of holding a job anytime soon (spinal injuries, loss of limbs, etc). These are the people who obviousy need it the most and soonest.
“....and that this time it will be different if only they are in charge.”
Proving that narcissism is the overriding philosophical imperative to a liberal...
If done at the federal level, however, this couldn't happen.
I'm against socialized medicine (I support MSA's). But to point to a state failure as justification is dishonest (for the reasons you gave).
Wiscon's welfare reform worked because it reduced benefits, driving recipients to other states.
The first ones to advocate socialized medicine are also the first ones to decry the shabby treatment vets get at veteran's hospitals (i.e. Walter Reed, which is now closed or is closing soon). What makes socialized medicine proponents think that the government would handle health care for the average citizen any differently or better than veteran's hospitals do.
They must be freaking nuts! They point out shabby treatment at government run veteran hospitals and then advocate more government controlled health care. Do they hypnotize the people whom they "sell" their garbage health care plan to? Because that's the only way I can see an average joe believing it.
Consider this angle. If a doctor in a socialized healthcare system knows that he is not going to be properly compensated for the work that he does, then that doctor has no real incentive to offer his services. This doctor might move to another state which would allow for him to make more money, or he might decide that being a doctor where he is now isn't the best of jobs and might consider another career choice instead. Either way, that is one less doctor providing medical service. Even if the number of patients stayed the same, with fewer doctors, delays would have to go up because there are fewer doctors to treat patients.
Never misunderestimate the stupidity of some of the US electorate.
Part of the reason the push towards socialized medicine has been so successful is because since the failure of Hillarycare in the early 1990s, all the people have been hearing is how "bad" our system is and how much "better" a commie system would be. There has been no rebuttal from doctors, insurance companies or anyone else touting the complete superiority of the free market. As the old saying goes, if a lie gets repeated often enough, it becomes the truth.
We can pretend that “strong laws” will “protect” these records, but the news is full of constant dribbles of stories about this or that data breach, this or that clerk who sold information for a bribe, this or that stolen notebook contain the data and this or that backup tape that was stolen from the parked car of an intern who was told to take the tape home at night for “offsite storage” and bring it back in the morning.
The only way to prevent this outrageous violation of liberty is to prevent and preclude government from having this data and this power in the first place.
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